Annie Sloan, Oxfam and new colour Lem Lem

This weekend sees the launch of a limited edition colour of Annie Sloan's chalk paint.  This fresh green is called Lem Lem and has been inspired and created in conjunction with Oxfam and Annie's visit to Ethiopia. Delighted to be given the chance to try out this new colour, I set about hunting down the perfect thing to paint. 

As the colour is based on the green fields of Alliums at the Ethiopian Seed Project, and the word means 'to flourish', I knew I wanted to do something with plants.  After a few days hunting the charity shops in my area I finally found the perfect thing, and taking the idea from my Reclaim magazine shoot about botanicals, I spotted that this chair had the perfect recess when the seat was removed.

The chair was £7.50 as the seat cushion had degraded so much, but I could straight away see that the cushion would not be used as the handy storage area under the seat would make a perfect hole for planting.

My intentions with this chair are that it could be inside or outside, the succulents are a mixture of both indoor and outdoor ones, and I think that during these cooler months, this would work perfectly in a conservatory.  It's a great way of grouping plants together as well, and if outside, the back of the chair gives some shelter.

The fresh natural colour of Lem Lem is just so perfect, inspired by plants, it tones so well, and becomes an organic object in it's own right.

If you want to see how others have used it then follow the tag #anniesloanandoxfam and you can see some fabulous videos on Annie's facebook page of her visit to Ethiopia.

Every pot of Lem Lem sold will raise money for Oxfam GB, so head down to your local stockists or order online from Annie Sloan Home direct, (if you click on that link it will go straight to Lem Lem).

September Sponsors #behomefree

Already the gallery for BeHomeFree is filling up for September over on instagram and I'm pleased to announce that this month there will again be a prize for the chosen photo.  Annie Sloan has donated a one litre tin of decorative Chalk Paint in the colour of your choice.

Colour inspiration comes from all around us which can be seen so perfectly in these inspiring photos.  As August drew to an end there was a flurry of last minute travel, myself included, before the Autumn sets in.  Right now we can see a mixture of summer and autumn hues as the season creeps up on us. 

I love to mix my own colours with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, they are perfect for this, my palette at the moment features whites with tones of bleached driftwood, pops of pale pink and vibrant cranberry with some hints of cool aqua and french linen.  You can see mood boards over on my Pinterest page which also often leads you to the places where the pieces are sold.

Here are some of my photos from this last few weeks, and some from the #behomefree gallery to show how colours can sit together. If it works in nature it can work in your home.

I love the exuberance of these ladies, out there soaking up the last bit of summer ..

@_marzie @_scarlett.l @kayleighawright @_susandrea_

@_mandydearest @niki.at.the.cottage @rebecca.kathryn @frontfortyfarm

@melissacondotta @aplayfulday

Be Home Free definitely meant outdoors this last month but I feel we will probably soon turn to the cozy nooks, firesides and candlelit evenings.  Whatever it means to you please keep tagging and joining with the growing community of colour captures. If you get the chance please also let me know what colour you would choose from the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint range and what you would paint with it.

Winner will be announced at the end of the month.
Happy snapping.

Bright New Bedroom part One

Before I talk about changing rooms around I thought I would just pop the link to voting for this blog in the #IBA16 awards.  It only takes a few seconds http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/janice-issitt-life-style/  thank you.

I don't know what it is that triggers me to change rooms, but generally it happens when I have been somewhere inspirational with a great vibe, I get home and see my rooms with new eyes and I just do it, straight away, no pontificating, I just crack on while the momentum is hot.

You just know when a room is looking tired and after seeing the home of Tamsyn Morgans, with the cool, pale and relaxing mood, I just had to tackle my bedroom and give it a complete makeover. I share a lot of the same loves as Tamsyn in our choices of vintage items, and it's probably what drew me to go and see her home for myself.  One thing that I noticed particularly is that while Tamsyn has collections of objects, she gives them space to breath and let's them be noticed.  I haven't changed around the treasures I have on display for some time and decided to pack away many things and rotate some beautiful items that had ended up at the back of cupboards.

My bedroom isn't just the place where I sleep, it is my den, my workroom and my chill-out zone, it is my centre of operations, my HQ.  For some reason it is my room of choice for working on the laptop, editing photos and social media interaction.  My bed is more comfortable than the sofa and all the cats can fit onto it with me. Also, as my partner is working with musicians they are often in and out of the lounge and kitchen during all hours, so I like to hide away, not worry about what I'm wearing (yes that means I don't get out of my pj's) and I also have a television and Sky box, so I can have films on in the background.  Occasionally I need complete silence when writing but more often than not, I have a tv on as background noise. I don't seem to be able to sit and watch a film or series and do nothing else, so if Im not working then I will be knitting or crocheting. There is no start and finish time to 'work' for me, the lines are so blurred that I start the second I wake up and continue through the night.

a couple of items influenced the colour pops, mint green, pink and aqua, this oil painting from the 50's has these tones

My point here is that rooms can morph in their use and then it's time to admit that the name you call the room isn't truthfully what you use it for.  We have an office, no-one ever uses it, the computer rarely gets switched on unless we have to print something and it's most common use is for the foster wild animals, so right now the 'office' is actually a squirrel nursery.  See what I mean? The conservatory is my prop and craft storage area which also doubles as a place to build room sets and make a dark area for moody shots.  The lounge, is a backdrop for photos, the guest bedroom is my other half's den and the sheds in the garden are recording studios and vocal booths.  The kitchen, well occasionally things get burnt here, and I make a lot of coffee and toast, but the cats eat in there more than we do.

OK we are very unconventional people, self-employed artist and musician but as more and more people now work from home then it's worth re-assessing the spaces you have and what they are used for.
Hence, the rooms that I spend the most time in need to change probably more than is normal, changing the displays of collections, changing for the seasons and changing for the current purpose too.

The Office! 

my father used to buy me antique cigarette cases for birthday and christmas, this is one of the most gorgeous ones

For me the more places in my house where I can photograph the better and a photographers eyes are trained to see things differently. They see the background mess and clutter, they see the light and the way it changes through the day and bounces off different colours. Constantly looking at images makes you hyper critical to how things look, you become extremely concerned with aesthetics and everything becomes a still life. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly untidy at times (in the areas where I don't have to sit and look at it for too long!). 

My bedroom needed taking down a notch, I just fancied pale, whites and tones of French Linen. Less clutter and a cleaner feel. I had in my mind a mix of old and new, Scandinavian in parts with a French influence and this had to work with some English antiques. I knew the elements I wanted but, honestly, had no idea how it would turn out until the very last minute.  One thing I did know - the colours would bind it all together.

Chances are that if you read my blog, you are quite interested in interior style, so over the course of the next few weeks I will be looking at different elements of the how and why's of my room transformation.  Hopefully some of my instructions and ideas will help anyone who is ready to do this too.

To get the look : Paints Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, new furniture One World Trading, Linens from - Loaf, Soak and Sleep, GZ Badboys.

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Styling The Seasons with Annie Sloan Wall Paint

Last year I was a 'painter in residence' for the chalk paint by Annie Sloan, before being chosen I had been using it for some time on walls, despite the fact that it was originally intended for furniture. For me it was a welcome change to traditional emulsion paint, giving a velvety matt surface.  The lack of sheen on the surface gives the colour more depth which changes throughout the day depending on the light. 

This however is not for everyone and is probably not ideal for areas of high wear or where water might splash. So now to fill that gap, Annie Sloan has developed a specific wall paint and this week I got to try it out.

My studio has wooden 'tongue & groove' panel walls, so in actuality I was painting over a standard emulsion on wood. This made the roller slip a bit so there is some slight patching, this would only take a few minutes to rectify and was down to the roller and not the paint.

I'm so familiar with the original chalk paint I find normal major brand paints very weird. Firstly, emulsion wall paint is so thin and splattery, needing several coats very often and the cheaper the paint the worse it is.  Secondly with wood paint Im allergic to the fumes and this was the major reason I changed to chalk paint in the first place.

The colour I've used here is Versailles, but please don't take these photos as a good representation of it, I was shooting in quite strange light and depending on your computer screen settings, the colour will not be precise.  For a truer colour look at the Annie Sloan site  and get tester pots, paint large areas of the walls you want and see how it looks in situ. I have seen Versailles look quite yellow in some light but in my studio it is a pale coffee beige. I wanted a neutral that seemed quite seasonal, matching the tones of changing leaves in nature. 

So how is this paint in comparison? Well, firstly I was really surprised with how thick it is, it must be the thickest wall paint on the market.  This I think would be particularly useful if you are painting a light colour over a dark colour, on the last photo I painted over a very dark blue chalk paint on the chimney breast and it covered it just fine. Also as I was painting onto a wall there was no slipping with the roller so its incredibly flat there.

I used a very cheap and very rubbish roller to apply the paint, just to put it through its paces.  It went on the wall a treat and while it didn't look 'even' when wet, it dried all one colour. 

The paint has a very slight silk finish so is suitable for wiping down or splashes of water but still matt enough not to be shiny.  

  

You can see the range here.  The coverage was good for a thick paint too and so if you are using the furniture paint you can find a wall colour that will work with it as Annie's paints sit very well together and she gives excellent tips about which ones sit alongside each other. 

While I'm here I would like to say a thank you also to stockist Dawn at Halcyon Days in Rye who very kindly gave me a tester of the wall paint in Duck Egg Blue, which I've used in a few photos now. I wandered into her shop when on holiday this year and we spent lots of time there chatting and laughing, she has some great vintage items too. 

The wreath on the chimney breast is now on its third or fourth incarnation. It was the one that I was given when we went to the 'Styling Spring At Mine" workshop.  It is now resplendent with dry hydrangea heads and I expect will get a bit of ivy and maybe even some holly nearer to Christmas.   

This wall paint has given me the bug again, I'm thinking about some other lighter colours now the natural daylight is disappearing. Also time soon to dig out the furry rugs and woolen throws. I've already started to light fires as there is a distinct nip in the air, and yet there are still roses on the bushes outside so it's an odd time to be sure.

Janice. 

Urban Jungle Bloggers Plants and Blooms

Im so happy to be part of this community of Urban Jungle Bloggers, Igor and Judith are very generous in sharing posts and photos and their appeal is worldwide so it's very interesting to see people from other countries following the same challenges.

This month its Plants and Blooms, very appealing to me as there is usually some floral element in my photos, it's the finishing touch, a way to capture forever the beauty of something transient and fragile.  Below are some of my home grown roses, the bushes were planted this year and still giving me lots of fragrant blooms.

My background colour in these two shots is using Annie Sloan Wall Paint in Duck Egg Blue, but as I painted over a green colour this may have effected its hue. Always consider this when painting, colours will change from that on the tin if you are painting over another strong colour. 

I shall be reviewing this new wall paint soon, with full details of how it differs from Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

Above is a new play thing, a notice board from Rose & Grey. It comes with clips and a finish that looks like old wooden pallets. 

I should also mention that a couple of these small planters are hand made. Above the little pale green one is from Katie Robbins (Ceramic Magpie) and below the mug top left is from the online store The Future Kept.

This large round vase is a vintage one by the company Bitossi, a highly collectable retro range.  I really want one of their lions, and am always on the look out for one.

More vintage goodies in this photo, I attended a truly fab event The Bloggers Vintage Jumble and instagram meet. Fellow bloggers from far and wide congregated on a sunny Sunday afternoon for tea cake and shopping in a village hall in Lindfield. It was lovely to see the faces of social media friends, a too rare occurrence in my opinion.

Jessica Trent sold me the embroidered table cloth and this was one of many great items I came home with, I was unable to show any restraint. Heather Young very generously let me snaffle the hydrangeas.  I'm currently growing a lot of the plants but as it's their first year the blooms are still a bit young and floppy to hold any shape when cut. From what I can work out, the hydrangea heads only look like this when they are quite old flowers which almost dry on the bush before picking. So thank's Heather you have saved me doing a midnight raid on a neighbours garden .... :)

My next blogger meet is in Bristol for the Sisterhood Supper with Toast, not toast to eat, silly, but Toast the great label. The food is being cooked by a well known chef and we will be learning calligraphy and wreath making. 

I hope you are all enjoying the Autumn colours, in the UK we have been blessed with such great weather the last few months making this time of year even more special. 

Get the Art Deco look

Over the next few weeks I'm going to feature some ideas about how to style in different decades using colour to bring the look together.

Im starting with the 1920s/1930s, and focusing on Art Deco, I will move onto the 40s/50s, 60s and 70s  in the coming weeks. My mission is to find things that you can buy from high street or online stores if you don't have the time and cash to find the original vintage item. While Im all for buying second hand, antique and original, it's not always possible to find those things and whether you have the original or a modern copy, you will still need to hone the style with your colour choices. Certain decades speak in specific colours and it's my aim here to condense these looks for you.

So, starting with Art Deco, we are looking at Black with either gold, pink or green as seen below. Its always Black and something, lots of black ..

This first moodboard is featuring pink and black combinations, here we have a selection of original Deco fabrics and bathroom mixed with items from the House Of Fraser Biba range and the Linea Lustre set of Martini glasses. Farrow and Ball Calamine is in the right hue for this period pink, its slightly salmon and dusky.

This pink seems to work particularly well in bathrooms, although I don't suppose you are lucky enough to still have an original Art Deco bathroom in your home. Adding the pink black and gold with touches of green can help you get that feel of decadence while you sip martinis in the bath. Biba have a good selection of towels for your Deco bathroom as well as perfume and toiletry bottles.

The second board features the green and black combination which I feel sums up the Art Deco look completely.

This board features a classic Deco ceiling Lamp from House Of Fraser called Tiffany New York Ceiling Pendant.  They also have black glasses (Linea Black Ghost glassware), and the gold mirror (Biba). This black and green combination works well in a dining room. The clock is from Wayfair (I shall be featuring this online store with my retro fifties look) their website is here.

glassware from
http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/Wine+Glasses/80373,default,sc.html 

The Art Deco period ran from the mid 1920's, the term is attributed to Le Corbusier, he of the iconic chaise in black leather and chrome, and he used it describe an exhibition of 'art and industrial' in 1925.

To get you in the mood, think about what was happening around this time, it was the great age of shipping. Ocean Liners were the big thing and if you look at Deco buildings you will see that they resemble ships, with port hole windows and railings in tiers.

The latest Great Gatsby film by Baz Luhrmann will certainly get you in the right spirit of that age, Liberated ladies free from the shackles of corsets, smoking, cocktails, stylish fast cars and hedonism for those wealthy enough to be the beautiful people. 

Farrow and Ball make two colours which closely resemble the hue of pink and green synonymous with that age. Calamine Pink and Arsenic Green, they also have several shades of Black. 

Last year as part of my Painters In Residence season for Chalk Paint maker Annie Sloan I did my take on Art Deco when I made over this original piece of furniture. Can you believe I bought this cupboard and chair for 11 pounds! The Chalk Paint colour Graphite is ideal for your black wall or furniture and Annie Sloan also sells Brass Leaf for adding those Gold highlights. On this cupboard the green was Florence with dark wax. I used a crackle glaze on the doors to age the colour Florence and try to tone it to the right hue for the period. 

I added a twist to the chair with this Van Asch fabric

There was a great revival for the Art Deco period in the seventies, I can't quite find where exactly this stemmed from. There was 'Bonnie and Clyde' the film in 68 featuring the acheingly beautiful Faye Dunnaway and the not too shabby Warren Beaty. In 1976 we had a brilliant child version of the gangster and moll story in "Bugsy Malone" with a fabulous performance by the 13 year old Jodie Foster. 1974 also brought us the first film of The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow

But for me the most important thing was the move of Biba to the Big Biba store in an old department store building on Kensington High Street in 1974. This was the most amazing shop of all time, it would take me all year to explain how every detail was perfect from the ground floor right up to the roof garden with flamingos. I visited the store by bunking off school with a friend and using our dinner money saved up for the train fare. A major influence on me was not only the awareness of style and styling but the images produced to advertise the shop by my hero Sarah Moon, still an influential photographer. It may have been 1975 ish but I can close my eyes and feel how it was to be in that shop, I would give anything to be transported back to that time but with more money in my purse.

More recently the originator of Biba, Barbara Hulanicki has put her Biba brand-name to a range of products for House of Fraser. Lots of items from clothes to homeware. You could literally decorate yourself and your house with all the items from her range, so if Hollywood glamour is for you then head down to House Of Fraser.  

Art Deco is a great style to refer to if you are decorating for a man who doesn't like floral but does like antiques and vintage. The shapes are more masculine and the colour range is pretty sexy and bachelor style, much like Gatsby himself. 

This style mixes well with industrial as it brings gloss to this rough beaten style. Thinking about textures and keeping them in balance, all shiny and hard or all wooly and furry, neither is particularly appealing, but mix them up in equal portions and you are onto something. 

For the House Of Fraser glassware please click here for the link. They sell everything from the Biba range too, from clothes to towels. Perfect for party styling with a theme, maybe have a Gatsby style Christmas party, how very chic that would be.

For all things Farrow & Ball click here where you can find stockists or order online.

For the complete Biba range click here and for Annie Sloan Chalk Paints click here 

All the above can also be found on my Pinterest board and the links on there will also take you to the source.  

Seaside colours - DIY Kitchen ideas

Where I live in Buckinghamshire is about as far from the coast as anywhere you can get. Is it any wonder then, that during August I long for the seaside, maybe because as a youngster my Dad would pack me and Mum off to Broadstairs for the school holidays to stay in his Uncle Toms guest house, right next door to Oliver Postgate's house on Chandos Square.  Yes, it was the sixties, ice cream parlours in shades of pastel, donkey rides, sand castles and the gift shops, with things made from shells.

So this week, when it seems like the world and his wife have gone to Cornwall, or some other cool resort in the UK or abroad, I've been hankering for the colours of the seaside.

This is also my birthday month and so often August treats are trips to the coast and a few extravagant purchases. These often take the form of something for the home, the first time I did this was my fridge freezer ..... the pale blue SMEG

When we moved to this house a lot needed doing to update it. As Im not much of a cook and neither is the other half, the kitchen was a dilema, I didn't want to spend lots of money on it, also the units were wood and it seemed a shame to rip them out. The kitchen isn't very big but for us its totally sufficient, and, at the end of the day, it really is just a home for pretty kitchenalia.  Oh yes, not being able to cook doesn't damper the spirit for collecting associated objects.

Actually, I think that the lack of ability to create gourmet food can be balanced with presentation, its smoke and mirrors at my dinner parties.

Last month my kettle broke, and I was getting fed up with our cheapish toaster which looked nice, but took forever to toast the bread for some reason. 

I had a look around for a nice kettle only to discover that SMEG do beautiful ones, and, of course, I also learnt they do gorgeous toasters too.  

Why is it that whenever you get something new and shiny it shows up how tired its surroundings are.  We had painted the kitchen cupboards in a few different colours, quite muted but with different coloured knobs on each cupboard. The top cupboards in a classic Farrow and Ball white (Pointing I think), still looked good and throws the light around the room but the bottom units were a bit dull in comparison to the new appliances so I mixed up a few different paints to zshusch them up.

Since working with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints as a Painter In Residence, I find that barely a day goes by without me painting something.  Often a backdrop for photos where I like to see how different colours work together, and sometimes on walls and furniture.

On one side of the kitchen where I now have my swanky new Nutribullet in purple, I have painted the bottom units with red details and stencils for a folk look. Choosing some different knobs from Anthropolgie to add the finishing details.

On the other side of the kitchen where the new SMEG kettle and toaster sit, I brightened up the units with a variation of paints that I mixed myself. Using up leftovers and tester pots. 

While I was painting the kitchen one morning over breakfast, I was taken to thinking about Vanessa Bell, having just watched the new tv show about the Bloomsbury Set "Life In Squares". 

I spend a lot of time on instagram, posting photos of colourful inspiration, and as it has a square format I started to think that my life is in squares too. Annie Sloan was kind enough to say that my style was reminiscent of The Bloomsbury Painters, in that every surface of my home is painted and decorated. As these were the first true bohemians I can see why my style is considered Bohemian Chic.

I snapped this through the window at Charleston House, home of Vanessa Bell

The other half bought me a Nutribullet and I started to use it this week.  I was sceptical but a few friends raved about it so, Im giving it a go and so far so good, I feel slimmer, less bloated and have a bit more energy.  

Nothing adds a splash of colour to the kitchen like a fruit bowl full to the brim. 

I may try to post a few of my favourite nutribullet drink combinations, so far I definitely like to add almond milk in the morning with some porridge oats and dates. 

If your kitchen needs a spruce up and the kitchen cupboard doors are wood, or wood veneer, then perhaps think about painting them. I find that Farrow & Ball paint lasts very well and can be wiped down, but you will need to prime and undercoat well before using it. 

Chalk Paint is a quicker fix but has to be well waxed to protect it from splashes and spills. If you clean a lot then the chalk paint may not be the best if you want to scrub it regularly.

I'm now looking at the Amara site for ideas about what else would look good, perhaps a Delonghi Espresso maker in pale blue ... mmm
also some new linens like the animal prints from Thornback & Peel.

I have a pinterest board for Bloomsbury Painters and styles over at https://www.pinterest.com/JaniceIssitt/bloomsbury-art-styles/

Here you can see the work of Vanessa Bell and the home where she lived called Charleston House. 

Next week I may not be blogging as its my birthday and Im going to Amsterdam.  I will of course be taking lots of photos there and Im keeping an open mind about what I will find to report back on, but I have a suspicion there will be some tattoos and flea markets covered.

Inside Out

Yay, we have some summer here in the UK, at least a whole weeks worth so far! It takes a lot to get me out of the house, so when I venture forth I like to take a few luxuries with me, even if its only into my own garden.  I have a lot of old furniture thats been used as props for photos, or projects and such. Some of it ends up in the garden shed as we can't bear to part with it, one such item being a single wooden bed that I bought on e-bay.

This was such a good purchase as it's assembled in minutes, just slotting pieces of wood together and laying the slats down, when it's taken apart it hardly takes up any space. And so, we set it up in a cool spot in the garden.

cushions and scarves are from Van Asch

We had some old foam in the shed as well so used that as the mattress and then took a lovely Kantha quilt and cushions out from the house.

Another old prop was the screen which I use as backdrops in photos, painting it different colours, this one has some stencilling on that I did a while back. 

I also made a wig-wam for myself, to keep the sun off and for my blind cat Coco to get cool in. I started off by pegging Kantha quilts to the washing line and then giving structure with bamboo poles and bits of wood we had lying around.  We keep a couple of old rugs in the shed as well for a ground covering.

By the evening we had got quite into the spirit of things, and took some chairs out to the paddock at the end of the garden.  To add to the fun my other half took some light shades out and hung them in the trees.

There are alpacas at the bottom of the garden, I think you can just see them, they are very curious creatures. We sat and watched them from our garden palace.

Another favourite spot for us is the lavender farm at Hitchin. We took half the house with us and bought food from their cafe as they do such nice platters.

All these items are from Holy Cow Home 

enormous bag from The Future Kept

All items from Holy Cow Home

cushions from Van Asch, quilt mug and plates from Holy Cow Home

At Hitchen Lavender you pay 4.50 each to go into the lavender fields and pick your own, the sound of buzzing bees is hypnotic. 

There are open air film showings in August so we shall hopefully return, maybe for my birthday.

Have a lovely time wherever you are.